Fluorine-Doped Tin Oxide Thin Films with High Surface Conductance and Low Transparency for Boosting Performance in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Applications

Transparent conductive oxide films, like fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), are needed for electrochemical devices. FTO films are attractive due to their cost-effectiveness and high-temperature tolerance. Generally, solar cell fabrication requires high transmittance and low-conductivity FTOs. However, achieving both simultaneously poses a fundamental challenge. This study investigates the impact of FTO layer thickness, sheet resistance, transparency, and film morphology on optimizing the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. To achieve this, a precursor solution containing SnCl4·5H2O and NH4F in isopropanol is sprayed onto a soda-lime glass substrate at 500 °C to form FTO films. The film thickness is varied by repeating the spray cycles. By increasing the number of spray cycles, the sheet resistance of the FTO film improves to ∼1.20 Ω □–1 with the expense of transmittance. The achieved very low sheet resistance of ∼1 Ω □–1 (∼3.54 × 10–4) Ω cm resistivity for the FTO film confirms the promise of this sequential spray pyrolysis technique in preparing highly conductive inert electrodes for various applications. Furthermore, DSCs with low transparency and sheet resistance showed higher-energy conversion efficiencies, challenging the current prerequisite of the requirement of high transmittance. The best efficiency (5.14%) is achieved with FTO films having a 34.2% transmittance and a 3.27 Ω □–1 sheet resistance, outperforming standard FTO films (4.74%) with a 10 Ω □–1 sheet resistance and an ∼83% transmittance. The results indicate that the transparency of FTO is not a dominant factor and carefully controlled light scattering and electrical properties in translucent FTO films would lead to the realization of dye-sensitized solar cells that deliver superior efficiency.